Marlee Hoffman's "An Invitation to the Moment" at WSG Gallery depicts life as a series of placid landscapes - a soothing antidote for all the unsettling news of late. "I'm interested in pointing out the little things in life through my paintings," Hoffman writes in her artist statement. "The point of my art is to help people really see... Full story »

The phrase "Grievous Angel" is a loaded one for serious fans of country-rock - or for those who take a keen interest in rock history. "Grievous Angel" was the title of an early 1970s album by Gram Parsons, who is revered as a pioneer of the country-rock genre both on his solo albums and as a member of the... Full story »

There seems to be a love affair going on between the producers of the TV show "Grey's Anatomy" and Greg Laswell - one that has kicked the singer-songwriter's public profile up a few notches in recent months. Last season, the show picked three songs from Laswell's 2008 release, "Three Flights From Alto Nido," and used them the show's soundtrack.... Full story »

I'm an emeritus professor of economics at the Institute for Social Research and a member of the National Academy of Science. Your thorough treatment of the current crisis is well done, but there is a basic, long-term problem behind all the dramatic, economic crashes. Full story »

Regarding the term "Ypsitucky" and the controversy surrounding it: What this is (the attack on the term "Ypsitucky") is a thinly veiled attack, by the political left, on the white South, stereotyping it (the white South) as "racist" in the public mind. Full story »

As a native Ann Arborite back in town after living abroad for the past four years, I'm impressed and proud to see the amount of bikers out around town. My former neighborhood, "Le Plateau" in Montreal, has the highest density of bike traffic of any neighborhood in North America. Despite the fact that there is an enormous amount of constant... Full story »

We're all observing how people behave in highly stressful times, so your imagination probably won't have to travel too far to empathize with the characters in Jeffrey Hatcher's play "A Picasso," now at Performance Network. Full story »

What began innocently enough four years ago as a simple talk about the history of dance at the University of Michigan has grown and morphed into a weeklong celebration - in movement as well as words - of a century of dance. Full story »

Junior Brown likes to say that "people who don't like country music always tell me they really like my music." If that's the case, those folks have probably been listening to the wrong kind of country music - that is, the prefab, paint-by-numbers "product" that passes for country music on modern-day country radio stations. Full story »

With warm weather finally here, lots of people are dusting off their gardening tools and digging in the dirt. But the nightmarish possibilities of a nurtured plant gone wrong lie at the heart of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's hit musical "Little Shop of Horrors," now being staged by Dexter's Encore Musical Theatre Company. Full story »

When the Ypsilanti Crossroads Festival began four summers ago, downtown Ypsilanti was a business district in search of businesses. The economy was booming, yet vacant storefronts dotted West Michigan Avenue and the side streets that feed into it. Full story »

If a production of James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim's fairy tale mash-up musical "Into the Woods" isn't enough, by itself, to bring you to Eastern Michigan University, would a robotic cow seal the deal? "We have a (student) robotics team here, and they have been working away, designing a robot for us," said director Ken Stevens. "Besides moving, it's supposed... Full story »